In the twentieth-century millions of people across the globe addressed each other as comrade?.
Now it's more common to hear talk of allies? on the left than it is of comrades. In Comrade
Jodi Dean insists that this shift exemplifies the key problem with the contemporary left: the
substitution of political identity for a relation of political belonging that must be built
sustained and defended.In Comrade Dean offers a theory of the comrade. Comrades are equals on
the same side of a political struggle. Voluntarily coming together in the struggle for justice
their relationship is characterised by discipline joy courage and enthusiasm. Considering
the generic egalitarianism of the comrade in light of differences of race and gender Dean
draws from an array of historical and literary examples such as Harry Haywood C.L.R James
Alexandra Kollontai and Doris Lessing. She argues that if we are to be a left at all we have
to be comrades.
